Software piracy level down to 68% in India

DQW Bureau

18 May 2009 00:00 IST

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The desktop software piracy level in India was registered at 68 percent in
2008, a one point drop from 69 percent in 2007. However, dollar losses caused by
software piracy continued to increase, rising to $2.7 billion in 2008, compared
to losses of $2 billion in 2007.

These are among the findings of the sixth annual BSA-IDC Global Software
Piracy Study released by the Business Software Alliance (BSA). The study was
conducted by IDC, the information technology global market research and
forecasting firm.

In 2008, the rate of PC software piracy dropped in slightly more than half
(57) of the 110 countries studied, remained the same in nearly one third (36),
and rose in just 16. However, the worldwide PC software piracy rate rose for the
second year in a row, from 38 percent to 41 percent, mainly because PC shipments
grew fastest in high-piracy countries such as China and India, overwhelming
progress in these and other countries.

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Key findings:

China's piracy rate has dropped 10 points in the last five years, a
result of more vigorous enforcement and education, as well as vendor
legalization programs and agreements with original equipment manufacturers
(OEMs) and resellers.
India's rate has dropped six points in five years, while consumer PC
shipments grew more than 10 percent last year.
Hong Kong's PC software piracy rate declined by three percentage
points in 2008, while the piracy rate in Australia and Japan dropped by
two points.
Lowering global piracy by just one point a year would add $20 billion
in stimulus to the IT industry.
Over the next five years, 460 million people in emerging countries
will come online. The growth will be highest among consumers and small
businesses, which tend to have higher rates of piracy than businesses and
government agencies.

“We are continuing to make significant progress against PC software piracy,
which helps not only the software industry, but also the wider economy and
society,” said Robert Holleyman, President and CEO, BSA. “The bad news is that
software piracy remains so prevalent all over the world, undermining local IT
service firms, giving illegal software users an unfair advantage in business,
and spreading security risks,” he added.

According to an economic impact study of software piracy conducted and
published by IDC last year, in India, reducing software piracy by 10 percentage
points over a four year period could generate an additional 43,000 new jobs,
$3.1 billion in economic growth, and $200 million in tax revenues. There was
further good news for local vendors, where the study also predicted an
additional $2.7 billion in revenues to local vendors alone.

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The global economic recession is having a mixed impact on software piracy,
the study said. Victor Lim, VP-APAC Consulting Operations, IDC, noted that
consumers with reduced spending power may hold on to computers longer, which
would tend to increase piracy because older computers are more likely to have
unlicensed software loaded on them. However, pocketbook pressures are spurring
sales of inexpensive 'netbooks', which tend to come with legitimate pre-loaded
software; and spurring businesses to implement software asset management (SAM)
programs to increase efficiencies and lower IT costs.

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